1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to safety restraining devices and more particularly to resilient recreation area safety restraining barrier devices and a kit therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the more demanding responsibilities for parents or guardians of young children, particularly for grandparents or other elderly guardians, is that of supervising the children during outdoor play activities. Even when watching children constantly, parents or guardians quite often cannot react fast enough to prevent children under their supervision from going where the parents or guardians do not want the children to go. In many instances the children are only chasing after rolling toys or balls to retrieve them.
A favorite spot for children to play while outdoors is on driveways, a usually substantially smooth paved surface which provides a good playing area for riding toys such as tricycles and playing with balls or the like. A common problem however during such activity is keeping the toys and balls from rolling down the driveway and into the street. This problem is magnified in many homes in which the driveway is sloped downwardly away from the house. For many children, their normal reaction is to follow the object in an attempt to retrieve it. By doing this, the children are placed in the obvious dangers associated with passing vehicular traffic. Parents or guardians, even if they are close by, cannot always get to children fast enough to prevent them from placing themselves in danger.
A related problem is that children, while playing, often lose regard for the boundaries that their parents or guardians may have set for a play area. Without a physical boundary to constantly remind children of their play area limits, children often lose regard for their guardian defined play area and gradually play further and further away from the area. Additionally, children, while riding on toys such as tricycles or the like, may go too fast and might not be able to stop on their own as they go down the driveway.
Some parents or guardians attempt to temporarily rectify these problems by placing a car across the driveway or erecting a temporary barrier out of plywood or the like. These barriers, however, are not always effective and sometimes are not as sturdy and reliable as they could be. Furthermore, children on riding toys or the like may become injured upon colliding with such barriers.
Apparatus exist which provide temporary fencing to serve as temporary barriers for a tennis court area. One such apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,758 issued to Howes, Jr. In the Howes, Jr. patent, a temporary tennis court net and surrounding fencing is disclosed using removable support posts and poles, respectively which are secured in steel or plastic sleeves embedded in the paved surface of a parking lot. The temporary netting provided in Howes, Jr. is draped across the surface of the pavement to prevent the escape of low flying or fast rolling tennis balls. The device in Howes, Jr., however, utilizes netting which is attached to and suspended between vertical poles without providing any cord or the like to suspend the net from. The netting, therefore, is held directly by the posts themselves in which case the netting provides a relatively rigid barrier.
A continuing need therefore still exists, for a temporary, resilient and removable device which will serve to retain toys, balls and similar play objects of children at play, within a desired area. A need also exists for a device which will serve as both a visual and physical boundary to keep children within an area as defined by their parents or guardians. Such a device should provide a boundary which will slow down and preferably, stop a child on a riding toy from going too far down a driveway or other play area while absorbing some or most of the shock of impact with the barrier. A still further need exists for a kit containing all the necessary components of the barrier system to facilitate easy and quick installation of the temporary barrier device.